Mr CHRIS HARTCHER (Terrigal) [5.35 p.m.]: A resident of the Central Coast, Michael Mills, along with 60,000 others last year, has had his driver licence suspended due to running out of demerit points. For 37 years Mr Mills had an excellent driving record, until May 2007 when his ex-wife, the mother of his four children, was involved in a serious motor vehicle accident. She was in a coma at Royal North Shore Hospital for just over six weeks, and spent a further six weeks in hospital after coming out of the coma. During this time, Mr Mills travelled to and from the hospital every day with his children and his mother-in-law.

Mr Mills was first picked up speeding while collecting his daughter to go to the hospital in an area where the speed limits were confusing. On receipt of the first penalty notice he paid it immediately, but at the end of that week he received another speeding fine, for the same area in the same week as the first. Each offence carried a six-point penalty, so consequently his licence was suspended with a right of appeal. Mr Mills appealed to the Roads and Traffic Authority and signed a good behaviour bond, thus reinstating his driver licence and committing to incur no more than two points in the 12-month good behaviour period, which extended from December 2007 to December 2008.

In late November 2008 Mr Mills was picked up driving under 15 kilometres per hour over the speed limit. He paid the fine, which carried a three-point penalty, thinking his good behaviour period had lapsed. However, shortly thereafter he discovered he was a mere 11 days short. Consequently, as of 20 January 2009, his licence was suspended for six months. This is a massive inconvenience for Mr Mills, whose job requires him to travel to Canberra. In the words of Miranda Devine, a columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald, on 19 March 2009:

We all breathed a sigh of relief when the Roads Minister, Michael Daley, announced last November he would reform the draconian demerits points system. No longer would good drivers fear losing their licences for being snapped keeping up with the traffic flow but here we are, four months later, and nothing has happened.

On 2 March the Sydney Morning Herald reported that the new "fairer" demerit point system had been unveiled but would not be implemented until September, a whole 10 months after it was first announced. Despite this, the changes will not be retrospective. However, this is not the only reigning issue with this system. After receiving a response to my representation to the Minister, Mr Mills is understandably upset that he has no right of appeal against his suspended licence. The response from the Minister's office said:

While I can appreciate the difficulties the suspension of Mr Mills' licence will cause, neither the Minister for Roads nor the RTA are able to consider lifting the suspension, even on the basis of issuing a restricted licence, because the suspension is required by law. Accordingly, the suspension must stand.

The Road Transport (Driver Licensing) Act 1998 states in section 16 (8) that:

a person who incurs at least 12 demerit points within the 3 year period may elect to be of good behaviour for a period of 12 months

Subsection (9) continues on to say:

if a person who makes an election in accordance with subsection (8) incurs 2 or more demerit points during the 12 months' good behaviour period, the Authority must give the person a notice suspending all driver licences held by the person

As the Minister's office stated, clearly there is no avenue of appeal for ordinary licence holders against the suspension of his or her licence as a result of an accumulation of demerit points. Yet it is interesting to find that in the case of a provisional licence holder exceeding the allowable four points, Section 17 (1) of the Act states:

the Authority may suspend or cancel the driver licence of the holder of a provisional licence

This is blatantly inequitable. The use of the word "may" in Section 17 effectively allows a provisional licence holder to have a right of appeal on a licence suspension due to an accumulation of points, yet the use of the word "must" in Section 16 removes any right of appeal for others.

In the process of restructuring the demerit points system to make it fairer and more equitable, it cannot be overlooked that the 60,000-plus drivers who had their licences suspended last year have no means to appeal their suspensions, regardless of their circumstances. Mr Mills sums up in his letter:

The current law appears to be overkill with no appeal. Considering the circumstances of my case I should be fined, but I should not have my licence suspended. Losing three points for doing under 15km/hr over the speed limit when the speed limit varies from 60-70km/hr is too high a point loss. If I had lost only one or two points, my licence would not have been suspended.

Countless New South Wales citizens who have had their licences suspended find themselves relying on an ineffectual public transport system or, as on the Central Coast, almost no transport system; many cannot sustain their jobs because of this enormous inconvenience. As Mr Mills says in his letter:

I have a job that involves travelling to Canberra. I am now forced to travel by train or plane, and hire taxis to get to and from my job. Shopping for my family will now involve buses and taxis.

If Minister Daley wants to play fair, he must look at reviewing the ability for a right of appeal on a suspension of licence, and not simply review the points allocation. This is a matter of enormous importance, not just to Mr Mills but to thousands of people throughout New South Wales. The system urgently needs to be reviewed. I call on the Minister to reply and to review the situation.